The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to
the ground. Then the men asked, "Why are you looking among the dead for
someone who is alive? He isn't here! He is risen from the
dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must
be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would
rise again on the third day." Then they remembered that he had
said this.
How Does the Resurrection Affect Us?
If we believe in the evidence of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament, what significance does the
resurrection have for us?
In the resurrection of Jesus Christ we see the clear
demonstration of the power of the true God. Ephesians
1:19-21 tells us that it is the power of our heavenly Father that raised Jesus
Christ from the dead.
The resurrection proves that Jesus Christ is God. That
is exactly what God the Father wanted to communicate to us, as we read in
Romans 1:4. The Jews crucified Jesus Christ because, to them, he was
blaspheming when he said that he was the Son of God, equal to the Father. The
resurrection of Jesus Christ demonstrates the truth that he is who he said he
was.
Our salvation depends on our faith in the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. In Romans 10:9, we are told how to be
saved. It says that “if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This means
that you cannot be a Christian unless you believe in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. This should tell us that even if some people are in churches, if they
reject the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they are not Christians.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ demonstrates to us that
all the teachings of Jesus Christ are true. Everything Jesus
taught was true, including his great promise in John 6:40, “Everyone who looks
to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up
on the last day.” Jesus’ teachings concerning his person, his work, heaven, hell,
and the future judgment are all true.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ secured our
justification. “Christ died for our sins and he was
raised for our justification,” Paul says in Romans 4:25.
Our own resurrection depends completely on the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Read 1 Thessalonians
4:14: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God
will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” There are a number
of other verses concerning this, including 2 Corinthians 4:14, and others.
The power for our Christian life in the present is the
power of his resurrection. We read about this in Ephesians
1:19-21, as well as in Romans 6:4: “We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” People ask me,
“How can we live this Christian life?” We can live it by the same power that
raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ demonstrates that this
Jesus Christ is going to be the appointed judge of all the wicked people in the
world. In Acts 17:31, Paul told the Athenians, “‘For he
[God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has
appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the
dead.’” We see the same idea in John 5:22 where Jesus said, “Moreover, the
Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.” In verses
27-29 he continued, “And he has given him authority to judge, because he is the
Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in
their graves will hear his voice and come out— those who have done good will
rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.” The
resurrection of Jesus Christ means that he will raise up everyone who ever
lived—some to eternal life and some to eternal damnation—and Jesus Christ will
be the judge of the wicked. All who have trusted in their fallen reason and
rejected the claims of Jesus Christ will be raised up from the dead by Jesus
Christ himself. He will judge and damn them.
